5/6/10

OK, so I mentioned 7.62x54 yesterday. Here’s the poop. I started thinking about wanting something like a deer rifle for when the fit hits the shan, right? Since an AK is chambered in 7.62x39, it is technically a .30 caliber. Pretty close to a deer rifle, I'm thinking. Thing is, there is another 7.62mm, or .30 caliber, military issue round out there which is more powerful, the 7.62x54. So I figured I'd start thinking about a Mosin Nagant, a Russian bolt-action rifle which has been around for at least the last 130 years, shoots the 7.62x54 round, and is dirt cheap. How cheap? Try $99.00 at Blood Bath & Beyond. Yeah, that’s what I said. Mount a scope on it and you have, essentially, the same gun used by elite Russian snipers in WWII to kill off a whole bunch of Nazis. It is apparently the “hero” rifle in the movie “Enemy at the Gates.” So the other day at the gun show, I see what to me is an AK-47 chambered in 7.62x54. “Wow,” thinks I, “That’s so cool. An AK which uses the more powerful cartridge of the Mosin Nagant.” Well, it turns out that what I saw was not an AK, per se, but what is known as a Druganov. A Druganov is the “new” Russian sniper rifle loosly based on the AK workings. Only it is so much cooler. First off, it shoots the longer 7.62x54 round and is therefore more powerful, and secondly, the barrel is much longer than an AK’s making it look really tough. Ooh, I want one! I began doing research. Of course I then found out the down side, it costs much more than a Mosin Nagant. Like on the order of six times more! But it is easily six times as cool as a Mosin Nagant so I kept thinking about it. Then I read on a sniper forum that the Druganov isn't quite as accurate as a Mosin Nagant and that I ought to be thinking along those lines. So I went back to that idea. I found a source for scope mounts and such and was really beginning to think I'd go that route when I read another forum thread. This one was started by the question, “Is a Mosin Nagant really all that accurate?” That was when the wags pointed out that since all of them are military surplus, and none are newer than fifty years old, they could well be flat wore out. So, with that thought in mind, and upon seeing another picture of the cool-assed looking Druganov, I think I'm back on wanting one of them. Besides, at around $600.00 they are still less than I paid for the Space Gun, and only a couple bills more than the “weaker” AK-47. Sure, I could buy four Mosin Nagants and a thousand rounds of ammo for the price of one Duganov, but damn! They are so friggin’ cool! I don't know. Perhaps common sense will prevail and I won't buy either one. We'll see. Well, tomorrow at this time I'll be hanging out at the Motorsport Ranch with other Seven owners at Birkinstock. I won't be participating in the on-track activities because, as I said the other day, my new engine has less than 200 miles on it. I am not going to flog it around the race track. So there. And on that note, I think I'll call it a rant. I'll have a report on the weekend next Tuesday.